Council licensing in East of England

Licensing in St Albans

St Albans has no selective or additional licensing scheme in force.

Checked 14 Oct 2026

Check an address in St Albans

We'll match the postcode to its ward and the schemes below.

Licensing, ward by ward

Select a ward to see its name and licensing.

National rules only20

Current ward boundaries from ONS. Some homes are exempt, so check your postcode and the scheme details below.

Selective licensing: None
Additional HMO licensing: No
Article 4 on house shares: None found
Consultation: None open

Licensing schemes

Mandatory HMO licence
In force
Mandatory HMO licensing (national scheme, St Albans fees)
Area
The whole of St Albans City and District (national scheme).
Fee
£1,035 for 5 years
The council's HMO page (14 October 2026) says: 'The fee for processing HMO licence applications is £207 per person with a minimum fee of £1035'; varying a licence costs £230. No effective date is shown on the page. A separate 'PSH - Housing Act 2004 Fees - April 2024' document gave £195 per person for 2024/25, so the page figure appears to be a later rate.
Who needs one
HMOs occupied by 5 or more people (forming more than one household and sharing facilities).
Exemptions
Statutory exemptions under Schedule 14 of the Housing Act 2004.
Apply on the council's website
How we checked this
This is the national scheme. The council's HMO page states: 'St Albans City and District Council only have mandatory licensing of HMOs.' Applications are made on the council's 2026 application form (Word document) with guidance notes. A licence lasts up to 5 years. All licensed HMOs are inspected and landlords must bring the property up to standard within a fixed period. Tacit consent does not apply. Operating a licensable HMO without a licence or breaching conditions can lead to a civil penalty of up to £30,000 or prosecution with an unlimited fine (council HMO page). The council applies its 2019 HMO amenity standards and the Hertfordshire HMO fire safety guidance to all HMOs.
Sources

Article 4 for house shares

We found no Article 4 direction on house shares in St Albans.

Council source

Civil penalty policy

The council's policy sets how it decides the size of a fine. The version we found has been updated for the Renters' Rights Act.

The 'Private Sector Housing Civil Penalty Notice Policy 2026' (created April 2026, reviewed June 2026, authorised by the Strategic Director on 10 July 2026, review due July 2027) covers civil penalties under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 and other housing legislation, using the statutory starting points. Failure to obtain an HMO licence (s.72(1)) starts at £17,000, with a 20% landlord-type adjustment (£13,600 down, £20,400 up) and a statutory maximum of £40,000, before mitigating and aggravating factors. A 15% discount applies for full payment within the period in the final notice. It is published with the Private Sector Housing Enforcement Policy (June 2026).

St Albans's civil penalty policy

Consultations

We found no consultations when we researched St Albans.

Not yet confirmed

We could not settle these points when we researched St Albans on 14 October 2026. Check them with the council before you rely on them.

Not yet confirmed
The HMO fee on the council page (£207 per person, minimum £1,035) has no effective date; confirm it is the 2026/27 rate.
Not yet confirmed
No selective or additional licensing proposal or consultation was found; the council states it has only mandatory HMO licensing. Committee papers were not searched directly because no sitemap or committee search was available, so a proposal not yet on the council website could have been missed.
Not yet confirmed
The employment-area Article 4 directions page (stalbans.gov.uk/article-4-directions-employment-areas) was not opened; the planning.data.gov.uk records for those directions describe office, light industrial and storage to residential changes, not HMOs.
Not yet confirmed
No published HMO licence conditions document was found.

Landlord register

The national landlord register is separate from licensing. St Albans is in East of England, where registration is planned from 15 January 2027 to 14 April 2027. The regulations are still in draft. Read about the register